


From the Ground Up

by DarkJediQueen



Series: Just Write Trope Bingo 2020 [15]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Adulting, Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence, Just Write Trope Bingo 2020, M/M, One-Shot, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:02:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26694958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Noah makes Stiles tell him the truth that night in the Preserve and it changes everything.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Just Write Trope Bingo 2020 [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1803853
Comments: 18
Kudos: 392
Collections: Just Write! Trope Bingo





	From the Ground Up

**Author's Note:**

> **Year** : Season 1 (2011)  
>  **Spoilers** : Everything  
>  **Notes** : This is a completed One-shot. There will be no more written in the universe. Prompts come from the Just Write Discord Server's 2020 Trope Bingo challenge. For the prompt: Adulting.  
>  **Beta** : Grammarly

"Stiles quit lying, right now," Noah said as he looked at Stiles. He knew that flashlight, and it was Melissa's. He had got it for her when there was an issue with a few people being attacked when coming home from work in the weird hours of the night. It was sturdy enough to cause damage if she had hit anyone with it. This meant that Stiles had been at Scott's, and there was no way that his son hadn't talked to Scott. If Stiles talked to Scott, Stiles convinced Scott to come out with him.

"Dad, he's not here," Stiles said.

"Should I turn the dogs loose, and we see if they can find his scent?" Noah asked.

Scott appeared from behind a tree with his hands up.

"There he is. Welcome to the party Scott. You are both grounded until the end of the month."

"DAD!" Stiles cried.

"You lied to me. Scott, you didn't appear when I called for you. I'm sure that your mother will support me. Home, lacrosse, and school, and that's it. Nothing else. At all. I'll take these two hooligans to my son's Jeep and meet back up with you guys."

"Yes, Sheriff," the deputies said before they headed toward the grid they were searching.

Noah looked at his son and his son's best friend before he waved them forward. He wasn't sure why Stiles had decided to follow after him for this. He knew that Stiles was inquisitive as hell, but he hadn't thought that he wanted to see a dead body, not with his issues with blood and body organs and them being on the outside. Noah remembered that he hadn't even been able to help him clean up a nasty cut he got being tackled into a glass coffee table on his lower back. Stiles had thrown up and nearly passed out, just looking at it with stitches keeping the skin closed. Thankfully, Melissa was more than willing to help him out.

"So, boys wanna tell me what you are doing out here?" Noah asked when he caught up with them. They both kind of shrugged and kept on moving. "I'll take that to mean you were out here to hopefully find the body. What if the killer was still out there?"

"It's a very low chance given the first half was found. And at night. Killers do revisit the bodies to relive the kill but not after it's been desecrated, and I assume that the animals that dragged the parts away from each other would have been enough to ruin it."

Noah glared at the back of his son's head, and he really wanted to stick his tongue out at him, but he also didn't want to do that while in his uniform and on the job in a serious manner.

The rustle of leaves had Noah reaching out and grabbing Scott to stop him. He heard the movement of something around them. Stiles thankfully stopped as soon as Scott did. As soon as the rustling got loud enough, Stiles moved to where he was closer to Noah, pulling Scott with him. There was a low growl, and Noah turned toward where the sound was. He found himself looking into red eyes.

"Stiles, crouch and get my back-up piece," Noah said.

Stiles did as Noah told him to, and Noah let himself relax just a little when he heard the weapon's safety being flicked off. Scott slipped to where he was behind Stiles. Noah had never been more thankful that he had taught Stiles how to handle weapons when he was young. Lately, it was some of the few moments in time where they were happy together, shooting at paper targets in the town's gun range.

The thing that was stalking them growled, and even if the eyes hadn't told Noah, it wasn't a human that growl would have. Noah reacted as he saw movement, and he fired at it. There was a whimper and a crash, but the thing kept on moving.

"Unload," Noah said.

Stiles took aim, and Noah made sure that Stiles saw what Noah was before he turned to focus before he too unloaded.

After about three shots each, Noah heard it taking off, thankfully in the direction that the rest of the deputies weren't. He grabbed his radio and made sure they knew he was fine but that he was staying where he was until they got to him.

"Dad," Stiles said as he kept looking out into the trees. "That wasn't a human, and it wasn't an animal."

"I know, son." Noah looked at Scott, who looked like he was in shock. "Let's get us all checked out to make sure that we were drugged with something. CSU will collect blood from here after we get the deputies to secure the area. Is the safety on?"

"Duh, I flicked that on as soon as you did, Dad."

Noah nodded his head.

* * *

Noah was looking at a report that he wasn't sure he was seeing correctly. He looked at Tara. "They ran this three times?"

"Yes. Wolf hairs in the blood, and the blood is human. The wolf hairs match what we found on the body, both parts. The claw marks in the ground match as close as we can figure to the body as well."

"So someone planted wolf hairs and claw marks on the body?"

"Sir, I know that you will probably think I'm crazy, but-" Tara stopped when the door opened, and Stiles burst in.

"Werewolves. It was a fucking werewolf. Alpha." Stiles looked proud of himself, and if it wasn't for the kind of look of relief on Tara's face, Noah would have thought his son was crazy.

"Shut the door and get in here, Stiles. Now what?"

"So I've been researching for the past week. The symbol on the deer-."

"How do you know about the deer?" Noah asked.

"Um, I plead the fifth?" Stiles said.

"Go on."

"Anyway, I found this old bit of book online that was scanned in at some library trying to be all good. Anyway, it talked about it, meaning revenge for a very old tribe that lived in this area like three hundred years ago. There were tribal histories of werewolves. So I started to dig. It's a werewolf. Red eyes mean Alpha, and yellow or blue is a Beta. I couldn't figure out why there is a difference in the colors for Beta."

"Tara, what were you about to say?"

"Well, Sir. I was going to say werewolves."

Stiles made a motion, and he had a slightly manic look to his face. He had been staying up too late, giving in to his need for research. Noah knew that look well. Probably also binging his school work.

"Is your homework for the weekend done?"

"Yeah, I got it all done before I started this new binge. So, you believe me?"

"Well, Son. We shot at the thing nine times. Seven of those bullets went into it as the slugs weren't found. There is no dead wolf that has been found, so I'm going to say that tentatively I believe you. Find me more information, have Tara give you what she can." Noah looked at Tara and made sure that she knew nothing too horrible.

"Yeah, I don't wanna look at the body. Can the blood be traced?"

"Tara has all of that."

Stiles nodded his head and let Tara pull him out. Noah was happy when Tara pulled the door shut. He knew that Stiles hadn't let any of it go. Scott was acting like it hadn't happened, and both boys were taking their punishment well enough. Stiles was just hanging out here more, and while he had been on his laptop, Noah hadn't thought that he had spent the week researching. Stiles had also not made the team, which hadn't bothered him all that much. Scott was on there, and Noah wasn't sure how that was going to go.

Grabbing the key to his only locked drawer in his desk, Noah stood up and moved over to crouch in front of it and open it up. He grabbed the top three files and laid them out on his desk before he sat down. He opened the one and looked at it and then the next two. The third was the Hale Fire. It had never sat with him that it had been ruled an accident. He had never understood how adults had died down in the basement like they were trapped there. The tunnels had been weird as hell as well, and Noah was still pretty sure that there was something else going on in the basement.

The first file was the Tate car crash. It had been found so long after it happened that trace evidence was long gone if it had been an on purpose crash. The second file was about the man, Ennis that had tried to claim a body when he wasn't related to him. Noah had seen his eyes flash red, and it was the only reason he had slipped a copy into the cache of files he had. He should give them to Stiles, all of them.

Something in Stiles' brain saw things that few other people did. Stiles had surprised him with a few connections with less information than Noah had.

"Sir," Tara said as she came into the office. She had a frown on her face.

"Yes?" Noah asked.

"DNA results came back. Given the brutality of the attack and well, it's you, the FBI offered to help. It's a match to Peter Hale."

"Peter Hale, who is in a coma? I got an update on him last week when I called to update the file on him for his lawyer."

"Yes."

"What the hell?" Noah stood up and took the file in her hand. "Keep Stiles here. Don't let him know where I am. I'm going to go and see what's up with our coma gentleman."

"I will, Sir. However, there is something else. The body that was in the woods? Laura Hale."

Noah opened up the file, and he saw the prints that they had got from sending them to the FBI, who ran them through their database. Seemed that she was registered in New York for a job that needed her printed. The second page was the DNA results. While it was one hundred perfect, there was enough of a match to have the FBI pretty well agree that it was Hale. The file reason why Peter's DNA was in the system wasn't there. It wasn't' always bad, but it piqued Noah's interest.

"This case just gets weirder and weirder."

Noah looked down and then back at his desk. He was tempted to leave them out but thought about it and dropped the files into the drawer and locked it again. Stiles was good about staying out of locked things in this office, but things out in the open were fair game to his snooping.

* * *

The long term care ward in the hospital wasn't all that hard to get into, and so Noah knew it would be easy to get out. He wondered about the red eyes and even wondered if his window was ever checked or if it opened up.

"Noah," Melissa said as he stopped at the nurse's station.

"What are you doing over here?" Noah asked.

"Needed coverage, and the ER is slow tonight. What can I help you with?"

"Have a case that I'm a little stumped on. Do you mind coming with me to check out a patient up here's room?" Noah asked.

"Is there a warrant?"

"Not looking at his personal items, just his room. The stuff that the hospital owns like the window to see if he can get in and out of it."

"Noah?"

"I have his blood at a crime scene, and I'm trying to figure out how it got there."

"Who?"

"Peter Hale," Noah said.

"I see. Well, I will certainly go with you to make sure that you don't do anything untoward." Melissa looked really shocked, but she seemed to be fine going about with him in this. He was glad.

"So how are you doing? Scott still behaving?"

"No, he's got a girlfriend, and she's twisting his head. I thought that Stiles' influence was bad; she is worse."

"Is she a bad influence?" Noah asked. He looked at Melissa, who did look like she was at her wit's end. She looked tired and just done. Noah knew that feeling well, and he hoped that things got better with her soon.

"No. He just thinks it's the end of the world that he's grounded and can't be with her outside of school. He's snuck out more in the past week than he ever did with Stiles. And I can't yell at the girlfriend as she sends him home every single time. Once having her father escort him back to me."

Noah nodded his head and looked at the door to Peter Hale's room. He looked back at her and braced himself for what he was going to see. He hadn't seen the man's pictures since he had been photographed for the case file before it was ruled an accident. No one expected him to survive. Even the coma he was in was unexpected.

Peter was sitting in a chair, looking out of the window toward the trees that were in the small park beside the hospital. There was enough room for Noah to get close to him and look at the window without touching him. He paused, though, when he was close. He smelled the Preserve on him. There was a rich earthy scent that he knew well from being in there for so long over the last while.

Noah opened the window and found that it moved easily, not like a lot of the other windows in the place. There was no screen on it; it looked like it had been ripped out. Noah leaned out the window, and he saw claw marks that matched what was in the Preserve that CSU had made castings of. He made a mental note of it all.

"You think that something is wrong?"

"There has been a threat made against the surviving Hale family. I need to track down the last reminding member that is alive," Noah said.

"No, there were two," Melissa said. "Besides Peter here."

"I can't say more than that," Noah said.

Melissa nodded her head, and she followed along behind Noah as he slipped out of the room. He wondered how Peter was moving around and how he was hiding that he was in a coma. Well, not exactly a coma but a not-aware state of some kind. He wasn't sure how he was going to go forward. He needed to see about watching Peter's room without the man knowing it.

* * *

"Hello?" a voice asked over the phone.

"Is this Derek Hale?" Noah asked.

"Yes, may I ask who is calling?"

"My name is Noah Stilinski. I'm-"

"The Sheriff of Beacon County," Derek said.

"Yes, Son."

"She's dead, isn't she?"

"I'm sorry, son. Where are you?"

"In the parking lot. I was coming to report her missing. She's been gone for over a week and stopped responding to me. I came here as I knew this was where she was going."

"Come inside," Noah said.

"Sure."

Derek hung up the phone, and Noah laid his in the cradle before standing up and heading out to meet him. The family notification had been put off while Noah tried to figure out more information. He wasn't sure how he was going to go about telling Derek that he knew what Peter was, but then he wasn't sure that Derek knew. He assumed that he did. Stiles had found that it was family packs with what he could that matched between several sources. He had also come across a few things that had Noah digging into something more about the Hale fire. He wasn't sure what was going on with the family as it stood about coming back to Beacon Hills, but Noah would figure it out.

Noah watched Derek as he entered the station. He looked like shit. Like he hadn't slept at all.

"Do you have a place to stay?" Noah asked as soon as Tara escorted Derek back to him.

"Yes, Sir. I'm staying in the motel that's near the Preserve," Derek said. He looked at Noah's face and then looked away. Like he didn't want to hold eyes with him.

"Tara, make sure unless the whole town is rioting, we are disturbed."

"Sure thing," Tara said. She looked at Derek with pity on her face, and thankfully, Derek didn't see it.

Noah waved for Derek to follow him. The office was mostly empty of active files, but Noah still had a lot on his desk. He laid the stack that was going to be talked about today with Derek.

"I need to know who you have as enemies, son," Noah started.

"The Argent family," Derek said.

"I know that there was the rumor that they had started the fire, but it was ruled an accident."

Derek said nothing, but his eyes darted from Noah's face to his chest and back. He looked a little shocked about something. Noah wondered what of the rumors that Stiles had found was actually the truth. He figured that once he had everything figured out, Derek would help him learn.

"Do you want to tell me why the Argents are a target? Why are they targeting you?"

"They don't like my family and what we are," Derek said in an offhanded manner. He shrugged when Noah just raised an eyebrow at him.

"If you need a break, tell me, but I need to tell you about how your sister died."

"Sure," Derek said.

"It looked like she was in the Preserve after dark. The estimated time of death was a few hours after dark. She was attacked by an animal and then left for dead. The thing is that after that, someone came along and cut her in half. We are looking for the weapon. Based on what the ME tells me, the weapon we are looking for is almost like a sword. It was one cut to cut the body in half. So it's something out o fa medieval story. The body parts were left in two different places. The upper half was where the first death had happened, and the other half was dragged a good distance away, but the ME is pretty sure that wasn't done by animals given the pristine way that the body was. You doing okay?"

"Yes. I am fine. Please go on."

"Sure." Noah leaned forward in his chair and steepled his fingers before looking at Derek. "The lower half was found first, and then we started to search for the upper half. It was found but not before the animal tried to kill me, my son, and his best friend. My son had heard the radio call and went to help find the body. Which I still find funny as he gags when he cuts himself bad enough."

Derek laughed a little at that, and Noah was glad that he was getting a reaction of some kind out of him.

"So son, when I shot the animal, it didn't run away. He tried to get us again. My son and I got half of a dozen bullets into it before it finally ran away."

"Rabies?" Derek asked.

"You need to learn to lie better, son. Now tell me everything about Alpha werewolves that you know and how I can trap the one who killed your sister to see him stand trial for his crimes."

"Werewolves, Sir?" Derek asked. He was good, he barely reacted, but a few little signs told Noah that he knew that Derek was freaked out.

"Yes, I know exactly who the Alpha is and where he is. I know how to trap a human, but I don't know how to capture a werewolf without getting my men and women killed. Which is where you come in."

"Where I-. Sir, I'm sorry, but what?" Derek asked.

"I know that the Hales were killed by Hunters. Mountain Ash powder was used to trap them, yes?"

Derek looked like he was ready to bolt.

"My son is good at research and finding the little nuggets of truth. He also stumbled upon a Hunter forum. I forwarded that information to the FBI. I'm sure that someone in the rankings knows about werewolves and will work on that information. For now, I need to know how to trap the Alpha that had killed."

Derek opened his mouth and then shut it again. He sighed and seemed to slump down into the chair. "Mountain Ash is the best thing. A circle of it will trap him. If you have someone with magic, they can make a circle with just their will that will trap the Alpha. My mother had an Emissary in town, but I have no clue who he was. Laura did. She came back to town because of them. They sent her something."

"This," Noah said. He slipped over a sheet of paper that he pulled from the top page. "Stiles tells me the spiral means revenge. It was until a few things got put together that I realized it was revenge for the death of your family, but why kill Laura?"

"The Alpha Spark. When mom died, it went to Laura. It doesn't make a lot of sense of why the person would kill her if they are getting revenge for my family."

"Can werewolves get sick in the head like humans?"

"Yes, if there is damage and torture. It's not usually allowed to get that far. Healing is done by the Pack by just being around them. Laura left before we could do anything about Uncle Peter, and she had the lawyer take care of him. He's not doing well. The hospital thinks he's just going to give up one day."

"So, your Uncle could have been healed by you guys being around?"

"Maybe? I don't know. I wasn't trained to know a lot of that stuff. Laura was mom's choice in Alpha when she was ready to give it up. I was just trained to follow orders, and when an Alpha orders something, you do it."

"So did you know she was dead before I called?"

"Yes, I felt her bond to me snap. I had a few things to do in New York before I could head here. So I was late getting here. I wasn't shocked to get the call at all. I tried to find her body, but I smelled your team around, and so I stayed back. I figured that both parts had been found."

"Prints took a little while, given I had to forward them to the FBI. The thing is Derek that when I shot the Alpha, he bled. He's in the system, not for anything violent. I haven't unlocked why his DNA is in the system, but I figure that I'll get told to keep my mouth shut if I push. So I'm dealing with what I have going at the moment and making sure that I am doing everything safe."

"Where is the Alpha?" Derek asked.

"Where he's been since the fire."

Derek's eyes widened, and he looked like he was going to bolt.

"If you run, I will have my deputies arrest you, Derek. I don't want to, but I have a feeling that you are the one that can make sure that no one is harmed when we take your Uncle into custody. If he's been malhandled and can give me a reason why he killed Laura or is quite insane, we will deal. I can easily have the blood taken from that night taken care of. Now, when I was looking into the fire after I visited your Uncle yesterday, I found that there was a woman who asked about you after you left. Her name was Kate Bolt. Now I don't know if you know her or not."

"She lied about her name. Her real name is Kate Argent, and she is the one that set the fire, her and a few other people. She didn't use her Hunter friends because they would never have set fire to a house with children inside. Hunter code means that they don't go after those that are underage. However, Kate and at least her father don't follow that."

"Why did you never come forward?"

"Laura forbid me. She didn't want the Hunters coming after us, so she told me to keep quiet."

"You said you are staying in the motel? You are going to come home with me. We are going to work on a plan to get your Uncle. Do you know of any magic users?"

"No, but I am sure that we can find one easily enough. The city used to be lousy with them even if they didn't know that they had magic. That's what Dad used to say."

"Let's go. It's time for me to leave, and my son will just show up here if I don't come home, and he's stayed here enough."

"He knows that werewolves exist?" Derek asked.

"He came to the conclusion first actually. Spent a week researching it. He's smart as hell and makes connections that I find to be leaps until he connects the dots for me."

"Above average intelligence then. You must be proud."

"When he's not driving me insane with his ADHD, yes I am."

Derek kind of hesitated, and Noah looked at him. He had been getting ready to stand up, but he sat down again fully.

"Derek?"

"ADHD and high intelligence are some of the signs of magic. Peter taught me that. He wanted me to maybe take his place in the Pack one day if I didn't take my father's. Cora was going to be trained for the other unless she was unfit for that position." Derek swallowed, and even Noah could see the way that he missed his sister.

"How can we tell?"

"I know a place in town where we can get some Mountain Ash powder, and it will react with him if he has magic."

"Okay, then let's do that. If we don't have to go and find someone else to tell about this. I would rather not. Did you drive here?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Just call me Noah, Derek."

Derek nodded his head. He stood up and waited for Noah to go out.

* * *

Noah looked at the pair in the living room. He sighed and then turned back to look at Stiles, who was looking at his phone while writing. Noah was pretty sure he was making a grocery list of some kind. He wasn't sure that Stiles needed to go to the store for anything, but he wouldn't stop him. Stiles had gone the day before.

Stiles turned around and had a grin on his face. "I have everything."

"Everything what?" Noah asked.

"Oh, to make Sheppard's Pie, well mom's version."

"Why were you on your phone?"

"I digitized all of her recipes so that I wouldn't get the pages of the book wet. I was double-checking and writing down a triple batch of it. I heard Derek say that wolves ate more than normal people at meals. So triple. You go out and talk to him, and Peter and I'll cook. I need to move."

Noah nodded his head. He knew that everything that day had kind of gone to shit, but at least they were all alive. After his knock to the head by Derek, Peter was healing up nicely after Stiles had broken the Mountain Ash powder line that Stiles had created. Noah was going to watch Stiles very closely. Derek made a comment about there being books in the Hale Vault that would help teach Stiles about his magic.

"Sheriff, thank you for letting us into your home," Peter said when Noah entered the living room.

"You are welcome, and please call me Noah, you are going to be staying here. Derek said that he could work up the basement to where Stiles can trap you in with that powder while we work on making sure that you are all healed up."

"Derek did tell me that. He's a little vague about a few other things. Though I guess given how I am the villain in this story, I can see why. It's all in my head, and I'm having issues putting it together."

"Take your time. We have Mountain Ash around you."

"Yes," Peter said as he looked down at the line that was around the couch that he was sitting on. Derek had moved the couch out while Stiles had started the ring.

Stiles' control of Mountain Ash was something that Derek said was rare. He shouldn't be able to do anything like what he did with just a little training that Derek was able to give him. It scared Noah and what scared him worse was how scared Derek acted. There was fear there and not just a little but a lot.

"Tell me what you remember, don't stop, and don't worry about keeping it in a timeline. I'll worry about that after." Noah turned on the audio recorder

It took three hours for Peter to give his side of everything. He really was very loose of mind, and it took Derek to direct the conversation more than Noah to get it all. While the recording was never going to make it into evidence, it would help Noah figure out what to do.

Derek had laid out what mental issues a werewolf without a pack might have as well as how to help them. When Noah had told him that it was his Uncle, he was shocked but also not. Noah figured that he wasn't shocked it was his Uncle because of the issues but shocked that he had been able to hide what he was doing. Noah had seen spree killers who cleaned up better after themselves, so he understood how Peter was the way that he was. So far, the only death at his hands that they knew of was Laura, and given what Noah could actually place on him, no court would actually put Peter in jail for that. He wasn't fully insane, but he was close enough, and Noah was pretty sure he would be able to fake it long enough. Laura's death would be easy to pin on the animal, and if Noah's looking into the bladed weapon turned up what he thought it was going to, he would be able to pin the desecration of her body onto someone.

"DINNER!" Stiles called out. He came into the living room carrying a pan of Shepherd's Pie, and it smelled wonderful.

Peter's stomach growled, and he looked a little ashamed of that.

"Don't worry about it," Stiles said. He set down the pan on the coffee table with the heat pad underneath of it already. There was a large serving utensil already stuffed into it.

"Want me to get the plates?" Derek asked.

"No. You just stay there." Stiles smiled at Derek as he said it, and there was something in his eyes that Noah knew. He looked at Derek, who was watching Stiles walk away from him.

Noah could see the look in Derek's eye that there was something there.

"I would never, Sir," Derek said.

"No, I doubt that you would, given what I have pieced together."

"Together?" Peter asked.

"Kate Argent is who set the house on fire," Noah said.

"Yes, I know. I know the names of everyone who was in on it. I've had a long time in my head, and I heard them outside of the house, saw them while I was burning." Peter shook his head. He looked at Derek. "Why did you tell him you would never?"

"Kate knew how to get into the house because of me. I didn't know she was a Hunter. Mom and everyone was so distant, and she gave me attention. Part of me knew that it was wrong that no adult should want a teenager, but it felt good, and I hadn't felt good in a long time."

"I really wish that I could rip her throat out. It was my plan."

"Yes, I know," Noah said. He tapped the not recording device.

Peter nodded his head and groaned before he laid back on the couch. He was trapped there, and Derek had trapped himself in with him. Noah hadn't been that happy about it when Derek had brought up him going into it. It made Peter feel better, though, and Noah could understand. Derek had a long road to go to forgive Peter, but Noah thought that they could get there. The Peter Hale that was sitting in front of him was not the one that Noah had known a little. The Hales were part of the town, and the town had changed after they had died or left.

"Who is hungry?" Stiles asked as he came back with a pile of plates and utensils. He handed them to Noah before he took the top plate, and the other forks were all settled onto the plates that were left in his hands. Derek got close to the barrier's edge and took the plate when Stiles handed it over the line. Derek handed that to Peter and then waited for the next. "Is that enough?"

"For now, at least for me," Peter said as he stuck his fork into the pie and lifted it up to take a bite. He nodded his head as he chewed. "This is very good, Stiles. Thank you."

"Your welcome," Stiles said. He looked at Derek with a hopeful look on his face, and Noah was glad that the young man wasn't looking at Stiles. It looked like Stiles had a crush on him.

Noah wasn't sure that Stiles knew that, though. Stiles' affection for Lydia was something that Noah understood. She was safe. She was someone who wasn't ever going to want him. She was smart, which was about the only quality that Noah thought was worth Stiles' attention.

Derek was a broken man, and yet he hadn't let it ruin him. He was standoffish, but there was something in him that was soft, and Noah was pretty sure that Stiles pulled that out of him. Peter looked up at Noah and gave him a smile, and nodded toward Derek. Derek was slowly eating, looking up at Stiles every few bites.

Noah looked at his son and saw that Stiles was eating and making notes at the same time. Noah grabbed the notebook from him, and he pulled it close.

"What is this?"

"The kind of stuff I think would be best when I search for a place for Derek and Peter to stay. Dad, he lied to you about staying in a motel."

Noah looked at Derek and saw that Peter was looking at Derek as well.

"You stayed at the house, didn't you?"

"There are a few rooms that are pretty safe. I didn't want to draw attention and have someone telling anyone that I was back around," Derek said.

"Wait, the condemned and burned down house that your family died in, that's where you are staying?"

Derek looked at Noah when he said the words, and there was a look in his eyes that Noah wasn't sure that he liked. He didn't think that Laura had been a very kind and loving Alpha, much less a sister. He wondered if she ever told him that the fire wasn't his fault.

"Derek," Peter started.

"Don't," Derek said.

"No. Fuck that," Peter said. He laid his plate down and took Derek's hand in his. He made his nephew look at him. "You need to listen to me. The fire wasn't your fault. That's victim-blaming, Derek."

"I let her into our lives. I told her stuff I never should have."

"You did what anyone would have done. Look at what happened with Paige. That made you wary about not telling Kate what you were. Kate probably was happy that she didn't have to fake catch you out during something and make you tell her then. She enjoyed fucking with you. She enjoyed all of it. I don't know if she's technically considered to be an ephebophile but what she did was all on her."

"She made a few comments to the deputies who had brought in a group of teenagers that makes me think that she would be considered attracted to teenage boys. She's not a good case for it, but I'm sure that we will figure it out as things come out about everything."

"So, what kind of thing do you have down there?" Peter asked, pointing at the notebook before he picked up his food again.

Noah was glad for the change in topic back to something that would allow them to eat.

There was a long discussion about what Stiles had down that would actually be something that the two Hales wanted, but Stiles nailed it for the most part.

* * *

The knock on the door was a shock. It was after eight at night, and Noah was pretty sure that he was expecting no one. He frowned as he stood up. He listened to see if Stiles was going to come running, but he didn't, which meant that it wasn't someone for him. Usually, Derek just Stiles' window to come and visit him, and while Noah liked that the man hadn't stopped being close to Stiles after Stiles' crush had become known, he really hoped that at some point, the man would use the door like a normal person.

The next day was Sunday and Noah had breakfast planned already for him and Stiles given it was his birthday. Peter was taking him out to lunch, and as far as he knew, there were no dinner plans. Noah figured he would end up with a sad Stiles on his hands when it became evident that Derek wasn't going to ask him to dinner.

"Derek," Noah said a little louder than he meant to when he found that it was Derek on the other side of the door.

"Hello, Sir," Derek said.

The Sir threw Noah for a loop. He had broken Derek of that almost a year prior. Noah looked Derek up and down and found that he was dressed a little better than normal and that he looked worried. Noah hadn't seen him like that since he had helped him through the courts with everything that had gone on over the fire.

"Do you want to come in? I'm sure that Stiles wouldn't mind a guest for a little while."

"No, I actually came to talk to you, Sir."

"Derek, it's Noah."

"I want to ask your permission to date, Stiles, Sir," Derek said. He didn't look up into Noah's face at all as he said it.

"I see. And have you asked him?" Noah asked.

"No, I wanted to ask you first. He's eighteen tomorrow, and I wanted to take him out to dinner for our first date. If he says no, I'll back off."

'You know that he has a crush on you."

"Yes, Sir. He does, and he had one on Lydia Martin for years and never actually stepped up to do a thing about it. Crushing on someone and wanting to date them are two very different things."

"You are done with college, correct? You know what you want to do yet?"

"Yes, Sir. I saw you have an opening at the station or will in a few months."

"You want to become a cop?" Noah asked.

"Yes. I thought you could do with some help on cases that are Supernatural and that things would be better if you didn't have to break the law as much to get said help."

"Well, you are correct there. So that's something you want to do?"

"Yes."

"Well, then. You have my permission. You would have had it before the job, but now I get to make sure that you are treating him right from close up. I am sure he'll be a fixture there more than he is now. Wanting to ogle his boyfriend will be a pastime."

Noah laughed at the look on Derek's face.

"He's gonna be your idiot," Noah pointed out.

Derek's face made a few different expressions before settling on fondness.

"Oh, Derek...what are you doing here?" Stiles asked.

Noah turned around to see Stiles standing in the middle of the living room. He was wearing just a pair of boxers. He looked fresh from a shower. Noah turned to look at Derek, who was blushing and looking at Stiles' feet. These two were meant for each other. 

"Derek, do you have something to ask Stiles?" Noah asked.

Derek's head shot up, and he looked at Noah with a look on his face. 

"Son, he's gonna be in worse conditions. He's a mess at the best of times, and last week he forgot to eat for three days except for whatever I tossed on his desk because of research. He's going to be naked more than you probably want. He gets out of the shower, puts on underwear, and then promptly gets lost in whatever he was thinking of while showering. I see him in underwear more than I see him in clothes. After this, he's gonna be your issue. He's an adult, and while I love my son, I'm glad to not have to be the only one to corral him anymore. I will gladly pass that onto you."

"Gee, thanks, Dad. I'm glad that you are not alone in dealing with me anymore. Though I don't know why I'm his issue. I mean, his Uncle is the Alpha."

"Son, that's all yours." Noah walked back from the door, allowing Derek to enter. 

Noah didn't leave the room, though. He waited to see what Derek was going to do. 

"Stiles, do you have plans for tomorrow evening?" Derek asked, finally looking up at him. He seemed to bypass Stiles' underwear and jumped up to his face. 

"No. I don't have plans for tomorrow evening." 

"Good. Good. Do you want to go to dinner with me tomorrow?" 

"Sure, dude! That would be awesome."

"On a date."

"Oh," Stiles said. His eyes were wide, and he looked at Derek with fear and hope warring on his face. "Yes."

It cut Noah deep, but he knew that Derek would be good with him. Derek was always careful with him. Noah trusted Derek with Stiles in a way that Noah hadn't trusted anyone else since Claudia had died. He could trust all of the Hales with Stiles, and he could for the rest of his life. Peter would die for him, and Derek, Derek, would live for him.

# The End

**Author's Note:**

> I write fanfiction for fun. It's a hobby and a stress relief. I refuse to stress over my writing. What you see is what you get. Errors, plot holes, and all. Thank you for reading my story!
> 
> I can be found on MeWe [here](https://mewe.com/i/beccaqueen1), join me there and we can discuss my fics and whatnot.


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